From the Editors

From the Editors

9

perspektywy

perspectives

Łukasz Burkiewicz

ORCID: 0000-0001-9115-0837 Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie lukasz.burkiewicz@ignatianum.edu.pl

DOI: 10.35765/pk.2019.2603.02

From the Editors

The Bible is, next to the achievements of antiquity, one of the most im-portant foundations of European culture and has had a significant impact on people who encountered it. It is the holy book for Christians and for Jews, while also being a source of universal themes, inspiring various are-as of our lives. For centuries, biblical themes are the inspiration for artists, and the Bible itself, following the words of Professor Anna Świderkówna, “has entered so deeply into our art, our literature, our mentality, our vo-cabulary that we cannot deny this heritage even if we tried.” In this con-text, as mentioned above, and the nature of this cultural studies journal, the theme in the current issue is the role the Bible has played in culture. A look at this issue has been taken from the perspective of Polish and for-eign (Ukrainian) researchers.

The series of texts about the importance and role of the Bible in cul-ture opens with the article by Olena Olshanska (Poltava National Tech-nical Yuriy Kondratyuk University) on the  biblical aspects emerging in the Ukrainian economic literature. The author presents current research on biblical motifs in contemporary (20th and 21st century) Ukrainian lit-erature in an interesting way, reflecting on economic theory in the context of Christian ethics. Another Ukrainian voice in the discussion on the role of the Bible in culture is the article by Iryna Taraba (Zhytomyr State Uni-versity of Ivan Franko), in which the author discusses the features of the conceptualization of corporeality in the dramatic works of Ukrainian au-thors, Alexander Chyrkov and Jaroslav Vereshchak. In the dramas referred to in the article, the conceptualization of the bodily code of culture re-fers to many biblical motifs. The Bible is also an area of inspiration for painters. This aspect is presented by the late Fr. Krzysztof Wałczyk, S.J., (Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow), who in referred to the work

From the Editors

10

perspektywy

of  Nikifor Krynicki. Self-portraits of  the Krynica painter, according to the author of the article, are a manifestation of his special self-awareness identifying his artistic work with the celebration of the liturgy, i.e. with making the history of Christ present. The part devoted to the Bible in cul-ture closes with an article by Marek Skrukwa (Jesuit University Ignatia-num in  Krakow) on the  musical inspirations in Krzysztof Penderecki’s work. This renowned composer, taking up biblical themes in his work, embodied the idea of returning to the roots of Christian art.*

In the second part of the issue, a number of various texts have been pub-lished. Wioleta J. Karna (Jagiellonian University) and Agnieszka Knap-Stefaniuk (Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow) undertook to identify challenges in managing Multicultural teams, which is especially impor-tant in today’s human resource management. Father Tomasz Homa, S.J. (Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow) in his study interpreted human emotionality in its emotional expression in the form of joy and sadness. His analysis is based on the  assumptions proposed by Ignatius Loyola. An interesting proposal how to interpret the ethical dilemmas of the late 1920s generation, known as the younger brothers of the WWII generation, was taken up by Dorota Heck (University of Wroclaw). The author based her deliberations on work of the prose writer and literary critic Zbigniew Kubikowski. Marcin Laberschek (Jagiellonian University) in his text ex-plored the quality of customer service on Małopolska’s cultural trails us-ing the “mysterious customer” method. Despite the rapidly growus-ing in-frastructure of cultural trails, the realm of customer service still should be improved. An interesting text is proposed by Rafał Hryszko (Jagiellonian University). In his article, he referred to the war expeditions of the King of Aragon, Alfonso V, that changed the eating habits in Italy in the first half of the 15th century. The emergence of foreign rule in the southern part of Italy entailed a transfer of Catalan culture, language and customs as well as culinary habits. Technological development meant that culti vating the  tradition of  folk customs, including celebrating holidays, is becom-ing increasbecom-ingly difficult. This problem is presented by Piotr Krzyszto-forski (Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow), who proves that despite the  problem of  departing from folk traditions, new initiatives, such as the Extreme Way of the Cross, are also being created, which encourage returning to seemingly forgotten rituals. Varia section closes with an arti-cle by Agnieszka Fluda-Krokos (Pedagogical University of Krakow), who has undertaken – in an interesting study – an analysis of the directions * As this issue of our quarterly was waiting to be printed, which was delayed as a

consequen-ce of the COVID-19 epidemic, our editorial team reconsequen-ceived the news of Krzysztof Penderecki’s death on 29.03.2020.

From the Editors

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of development of the digitization of priceless manuscripts and other testi-monies of past times. Digitization of these resources has certainly contrib-uted to the removal of many barriers to accessing the achievements of writ-ing and printof writ-ing culture.

The issue closes with the text of Fr. Józef Polak SJ, in which he recalls the long-time employee of the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow, Fr. Krzysztof Wałczyk, S.J., who died in March 2018. A beautiful funer-al homily, which we publish funer-almost entirely in the current issue, leaves us with the memory of Father Krzysztof, who was an important member of our academic community.

The current issue is also the first one for me as an editor-in-chief writ-ing these words. This is undoubtedly a big challenge and responsibility to continue the work started by my predecessors, whom I would like to thank for their dedication and contribution to the development of our institute magazine. Without your commitment we would not be where we are now. Undoubtedly, new challenges are before us.

As always, we wish you a pleasant and useful scientific reading!

Łukasz Burkiewicz – cultural scientist, historian and economist of cul-ture. Adjunct at the Institute of Cultural Studies of the Jesuit Univer-sity Ignatianum in Krakow. His research interests are related to the hi-story of culture of the Mediterranean countries in the Middle Ages and throughout modernity. He is also interested in Medieval travelers. His research also involves issues related to the management, marketing, economics and culture.